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Knock It Off
Knock It Off'' 'is the sixth episode in the fourth season of The Powerpuff Girls. It aired on July 12, 2002. Summary The Professor's old college roommate, Dick Hardly, stops by for a visit. When he gets his first glance at the girls, he comes up with an idea to create his own and sell them off as a security system to make money. Plot The Professor gets a call from his old friend, Dick Hardly, who tells him that he's coming over for a visit. Soon, Professor Utonium begins remembering his interactions with Dick at the university they both attended (where Dick secretly cheated on his work and slacked off when he wasn't looking). Dick soon arrives and gets a tour of the household. After Dick gets his first glance at the girls, while discussing ways to make money off of them, the Professor becomes suspicious and asks him to leave. Feeling betrayed, Dick begins planning his revenge on Utonium. Later that day, the girls are about to return home from school when Dick's car pulled up in the driveway, and he offers them a ride home. While driving, Dick explains how evil is always occurring around the world. Later, Professor Dick mentions the possibility for multiple Powerpuff Girls who would fight crime in various locations outside of Townsville. Later, he asks the girls what they are made of. The girls quickly answer: "Sugar, spice, and everything nice, and an accidental dose of Chemical X." Arriving at their household, he asks the girls for a flask of Chemical X. They zip to the Professor's lab and back, giving him the flask. Now eager, Dick rushes into an abandoned evil factory, which he now owns, and uses all the ingredients the girls told him earlier to make his own creation—'The Powerpuff Girls with Chemical X-treme '''(which are actually knock-offs of the originals). The next day, Dick shows off his creations to the mayor of New York City. Sometime later, the creations rush a giant alligator monster (who bears a striking resemblance to Wally Gator) to safety while on his way to work. This footage is publicly broadcast, and the Utonium family is watching. The Professor acts a little suspicious towards the real girls, thinking that they went to New York, and asks them when they went. The girls lie to him, saying that they went there earlier. While in bed, the girls feel guilty about lying to him, but believe it will all turn out good. In the following weeks, Dick's factory starts expanding and he was now making more knock-off girls all over the world: Japan, France, India, Germany, and Egypt. However, there were some knock-offs that he rejected. So, they stayed at his factory for repairs. Some of the rejects are so disfigured, they ended up as hideous mutants. Meanwhile, Professor Utonium is starting to act more and more suspicious. Eventually, the girls' trust in Dick quickly fades after watching an infomercial featuring him advertising "The Powerpuff Girls with Chemical Xtreme", in which they also learn that Dick sold his Powerpuff Girls to anyone who pay him for them, even criminals. Now knowing that Dick lied to them, the girls fly to his factory, confront him, and ask for the Chemical X they gave him, back. But, rather than give it back to them, he psychotically swallows it whole (flask and all). Suddenly, the effects of the Chemical X he swallowed transforms Dick into a radioactive monster. The girls battle Dick, but they are no match for him and he leaves them all unconscious. Meanwhile, the Professor, whose suspicions lead him into realizing Dick was behind all of this, drives all the way to his factory. Noticing the fight inside, he rushes into the factory, but arrives too late, as Dick has almost extracted all the Chemical X out of the girls using the machine he invented. Utonium begs Dick to stop, as he's destroying them, but Dick orders all the rejects to take him away. While they do so, Professor Utonium tearfully expresses his strong and deep fatherly love towards the real girls. This sparks the rejected girls' minds into knowing that Dick never gave them love or care. The rejects turn against him, cling to his body, and sacrifice themselves to consume Dick in an inferno. However, a few of the rejects who survived release the girls, now dead from being completely drained of their Chemical X, and convince the Professor to take his family and escape before it's too late. He does so, leaving Dick behind, and, now far away from the burning factory is grief-stricken over the loss of his girls. Fortunately, his love quickly revives them and the Professor, now happy, tells the girls: ''"Old Dick may have gotten the formula right, but the one ingredient he forgot, was '''LOVE." As the girls and Utonium leave, Dick Hardly screams in agony one last time as his factory continues to burn, and the narrator says: "Guess like the love you take is equal to the love you make." Characters Major Roles *The Powerpuff Girls ** ** ** * *Dick Hardly *Powerpuff Girlz Xtreme Minor Roles *Raja Jaja *Trevor *Lloyd & Floyd Floyjoydson (Cameo) *Mitch Mitchelson (Cameo) *Mary (Cameo) *Harry Pitt (Cameo) *Kim (Cameo) *Hanout Anoush (Cameo) *Wally Gator (Non-Speaking Cameo) *Betty (Flashback) * (Mentioned; Pictured) Trivia *The title is a play on the word "knock-off", which means a cheaper and/or poorly-constructed version of something, such as what Dick was doing with his Powerpuff Girls. *This is the fourth episode to have a character die in the show, which is Dick. The first being The Rowdyruff Boys in the synonymous episode of the same name (but are later revived), the second being the Broccoloids in "Beat Your Greens", and the third being Bunny in "Twisted Sister". *The directions to Townsville that Professor Utonium gives to Dick in the opening refer to actual freeways in the city of Los Angeles. If we applied the Professor's description to real life, Townsville would be located in Pasadena, which is where the 210 (nearly) junctions with the Harbor Freeway (aka Highway 110), roughly 15 miles east of the 101. *It's unclear how the Girls found Dick's hideout. *This was the only episode where someone destroys the Powerpuff Girls by taking their Chemical X life energy, but are brought back to life thanks to the deep fatherly love of the Professor. *In one scene of Dick overlooking his rejects, look closely and you can see that one of them bears a resemblance to Dynamo. *It's possible that Townsville is in California because according to the license plate on Dick's car, it's from California and the license plate also says the car was made in June 2001. It also says PROF-DIK on the license plate. *The villain in India, named Raja Jaja, is a human and Indian version of Mojo Jojo. *The Professor says, "Well, old Dick may have gotten the formula right, but the one ingredient that he forgot was love." It should be noted that the only ingredients known to make the girls were sugar, spice, everything nice and Chemical X. Although it can be assumed that the Professor is simply being poetic, given that one of the ingredients is everything nice, it could be said that love is the nicest of all that is nice. *Professor Utonium's declaration of his love towards the girls is similar to a scene in the last episode of Samurai Jack, where Jack declares his love towards Ashi. *After the Professor questions the girls if they were really in India, Blossom answered instead with the phrase, "mazel tov". This is oddly inaccurate, as the phrase is in Hebrew, which is the native language of Israel, not India. Cultural References *The episode could be seen as an allusion to The Clone Saga, a Spider-Man storyline that ran from 1994 to 1996, and depicted Spider-Man facing an armada of clones created by the supervillain Jackal, including the Scarlet Spider, Kaine, and Spidercide. *When the rejects turn on Dick, a buck-toothed Bubbles says "Only a master of evil, Dick", a reference to the line: "Only a master of evil, Darth" during the confrontation between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader on the Death Star in Star Wars. *National Public Radio (NPR) is referenced in this episode, making it the only time a real-life radio brand was mentioned in the series. *The robots are seen remorsefully looking at the scenery when the Powerpuff Girls Xtreme saved Japan resemble (from left to right) Mazinger Z, Ultraman, and Getter Robo. *The Narrator's last line in this episode, the love you take is equal to the love you make, is referring to the song "The End" by The Beatles. Continuity *This is the third time the girls come close to dying, the first was in "The Rowdyruff Boys", the second was in "Mojo Jonesin'". In the first and third times, they are revived by the power of love. The second time, they are revived by some friends, who used their last bit of Chemical X, which they had previously received by a disguised Mojo Jojo, to do so. *The part where Buttercup says "I think they're askin' for a hiney whoppin!" is re-used from "The Rowdyruff Boys". Production Notes *Although this episode premiered in 2002, it was produced in 2001 according to the credits. **This episode must have finished production before September 11, 2001, as one scene featured The Twin Towers, standing fully intact. In this scene, a giant version of Wally Gator tripped and nearly landed on the world trade center, before knock-off versions of The Powerpuff Girls saved him. By the time this episode had aired, on July 12th, 2002, this scene was never edited, cut, etc. as it must have been minor enough for people to miss, making for an accidental reference to 9/11. *This episode was the 45th episode made but aired as the 49th. Therefore, some digitally inked episodes aired before this episode did. *Although this episode was produced in 2001, this was the last episode of the series to use traditional ink-and-paint animation, and the last one to use the template for the January 1999 version of the 1998-2001 animated episode outro. Future episodes of this series would exclusively use digital ink-and-paint or computerized cels. *After this episode finished production, Rough Draft produced Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?, their final TV series to be done with cel animation, which aired between 2002 and 2003. By the end of 2003, Rough Draft management decided that audiences wanted only television programs produced using digital ink-and-paint, and closed down their traditional cel animation department. The cel animation desks and cels from episodes were removed or sold off and the animation-specific rostrum cameras along with an episode outro production cel of the girls (in a smaller size and in their normal poses) created exclusively for this episode was dismantled and scrapped. The reused episode outro production cels (complete with the November 1998, January 1999, and April 2000 star explosion cells and the November 1998 and January 1999 cells of the girls in their normal poses (in usual large sizes and in normal poses) were then reused for color-corrected versions of 1998-2001 episodes that were produced using computers and cell animation at an American not-for-profit animation studio between late 2003 and early 2006. *This episode is also the last one to use the February 2001 variant of the 1998-2001 3D star explosion and the January 1999 variant of the 1998-2001 golden star shower. *Also, in the animated outro for this episode, when the girls appear, they are zoomed out slightly further than usual. *It's hinted that this episode was produced in June 2001, seeing as the Professor's license plate was labeled with a June 2001 date. *In the airing order, this is the last episode to use the Hanna-Barbera ending logo before William Hanna's death in 2001. *This was the first episode to credit Bubbles' voice actress as Tara Strong since she married her husband Craig Strong in 2000. Errors *When this episode first aired on Cartoon Network, the episode incorrectly had a 2000 copyright date at the end. Later reruns corrected this to 2001. Category:Episodes Category:Episodes directed by Robert Alvarez Category:Episodes directed by Craig McCracken Category:Two-Part Episodes Category:Episodes focusing on Professor Utonium Category:Episodes focusing on all three girls Category:Episodes where The Powerpuff Girls do not save the day Category:Episodes where Professor Utonium saves the day Category:Dark Episodes Category:2002 episodes Category:Horror Episodes Category:Episodes where Professor Utonium sobs and cries Category:Season 4 Category:Sad Episodes